Sojourns with my dog and others that matter.

Tag Archives: outdoorcitizen

I ended the AT through Shenandoah where I began it long ago. Several years back my sweetie and I backpacked the Moorman River Loop which traversed the AT from Turk Gap to Blackrock Gap…loved that trip!

Anyway, here I was with the Dames at Loft Mountain pulling out my gear for a quick overnight on the AT. It was going to be a hot one!

Shorts? Check!

Prehydrate with Gatorade? Check!

Backpack packed light? OMG OMG OMG OMG 21 POUNDS!!!!! WHAAAAAT?

That has never happened…are you kidding me? 21 pounds?!! I’m so proud of myself 😂

Okay, let me collect myself, whew…

The first day was sweet! Gorgeous trail, interesting rocks, and tremendous views from Blackrock Summit.

Pulling down into Blackrock Hut, we got set up quickly. I decided that I was going to have a lazy weekend and took advantage of a mostly empty shelter! The ridgerunner, Papa Bear, showed up, in addition to a slew of thruhikers and weekend warriors.

Papa Bear was a great conversationalist and I soon found out we knew some of the same trail folk. This type of encounter is what I truly love about the AT. The trail connects us in ways we cannot possibly understand or anticipate; it is almost magical. 😊

A few of the guys tenting down the hill spotted a mama bear and cub on the opposite side of the ravine! We all ran down to watch them until they ambled off. Then it was to bed for me! Next morning I heard that the bears came back…the guys down the hill had to come out of their tent, yell a bit, made a bunch of noise until the bears again left. 😲

I heard nothing from the bears, but oh! The whipporwills! A lovely serenade long into the night.

The following day I treated the dames to slackpacking the last 8.5 miles. I would say it was a treat for me too, but recall my pack was ONLY 21 POUNDS!! 😄😄😄

It was a great decision. Four good climbs, temps climbing into mid-80s, and a delightful mugginess moved in. Yummy.

It was one of those days. Climb up 100 yards, stop to rest, up, rest, up, rest…

The wildflowers along the way made it bearable!

Turk Gap was a welcome sight! A few of us capped off the weekend at Loft Wayside before dragging ourselves back to the real world. Here’s to good friends, the trail community, and whipperwills…hike on!

The hiking weekend to kick off my spring break…ha! The house we rented in Staunton, Virginia is lovely and made a great place to plan out alternative hikes…or as I like to think of them, plan B, C, D…

After the hike at Trimble Mountain, we knew that the chances of Shenandoah National Park being open in the morning were pretty close to ZERO. Throw the maps out on the table and discuss a few possibilities. None of them were as appealing as hiking the AT, which was Plan A. We had already used up Plan B at Trimble Mountain, so we went with Plan C, an out and back on the AT starting at Rockfish Gap. We would hike to McCormick Gap and back…about 7.5 miles. In the deep snow that would be enough!

Yes, a plan! We parked at the old HoJo’s at Rockfish Gap and made our way over to the south entrance and cut-off to the AT where we donned our microspikes and headed up into the woods. Another gorgeous day!

We were lucky several had passed this way before us packing down the snow a bit on the trail. It was still icy, so microspikes had been a good call! We trudged uphill, taking occasional breaks to catch our breath, let the heart rates return to normal, and to generally take in the quiet, snow-laden forest that surrounded us. Until the crow saw us…he chattered non-stop, either saying hello or get the heck out of my territory… not sure which, but he was quite animated!

Then I heard it. The hum, the slap of melted snow runoff on moving tires, Skyline Drive must have been opened. At first one car, then silence. As we neared McCormick Gap, the number of cars on the drive had picked up considerably…the word was out!

We stopped for a break at McCormick Gap and made a decision to continue to Beagle Gap and hitch a ride back to Rockfish for the car. The Hiking Weekend Adventure was in full throttle!

I was excited! Reaching the top of the mountain there are several communication towers and oddly enough, tractor seats. I had seen them many times in pictures and looked forward to breaking there and having a sit-down before descending to Beagle Gap. It was everything I expected and we all took a nice rest in those tractor chairs!

The sun was trying to make its way out of the clouds. Lola pointed out that a rainbow had formed around it. I looked up, and up, and back, and up, and then…oh gawd…I was falling out of the chair! All I could think was, not today, please, not today, the ground is wet, the ground is muddy…no, no, no, this would NOT happen to me today! I struggled to keep myself in the chair by one-arming myself off the ground, believe me, not a particularly ballerina moment in my life! 😀 But ladies and gents, it worked!

Midway through Fall and stuck deep in a pile of ungraded projects…and part 2 of my take-home mid-term from my grad class. No wonder I want to stop everything and go back to summer!

Fond memories of backpacking in August with the Trail Dames of Maryland. I am getting better at leading these backpacks…but I am no pro! I love giving these women the opportunity to get out in the woods for a night or two. and Honestly, what I get in return is so much more than I ever anticipate!

We backpacked the weekend of August 11 – 13, 2017. Setting off from the Loft Mountain camp store, we promptly crossed paths with a rattlesnake…that I initially thought was dead. Um…NOT DEAD! However, it was quite diplomatic and did not rattle at us, instead, after tasting the estrogen soaked air with its pink flickering tongue it very politely slithered across the trail and into the woods. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

The first day went uneventfully, but had some good ups and downs. By the time we arrived at the first shelter we were beat!

We had lunch by this beautiful waterfall

Right after we had to climb a big hill…of course! These views don’t come for free! 🙂

Yay! the shelter!

Hanging out, eating dinner.

My Big Agnus clinging to a slopey spot.

And Lola brought the AT Game!

I will say the first night was not my shining moment. I had the WORST nightmare about a bear pushing in on my tent and trying to mouth my arm. In my sleep, I thought “oh, Lola is tented right up the hill. Let me yell loud enough to get her attention.” And then, you know, I couldn’t make a sound because that is the way nightmares do you! So, I kept trying and this bear kept butting into my tent, and I couldn’t make a sound and it WAS SO REAL!!!! and then finally, AAAAHHADAHLGOGGEOJ01%^#@856y27542uhfwiurhtfa;wp293456891205-9815 LOUD AND CLEAR! and my eyes shot open…nothing, I was staring at the ceiling of the tent, heart pumping wildly, ears pricked for any sound and then I was like “holy crap, I just yelled out loud…I AM AN IDIOT! 😀 Oh my God, please, tell me that no one heard me…

Day 2 was a filled with bigger climbs and a bigger threat of rain. The last climb to Hightop Hut was muggy and long. Sheer exhaustion steered us straight to the shelter for a well deserved sit down before setting up tents, gathering water, and all the other little tasks that needed to be done. And then there was thunder…okay, tents up NOW! We were lucky that all of us had our tents up and were back in the shelter when the skies opened up for a beautiful thunderstorm. It was truly lovely after walking in the hot, humid, sticky forest all day.

Always nice to have a helping hand when navigating around downed trees! This is what makes Trail Dames great! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Love ❤

Breakfast at Hightop Hut

The final day we headed towards South River Picnic Grounds with absolutely gorgeous weather. The thunderstorm and knocked out the humidity and walking was pleasant again. We were a good team and found ourselves laughing out loud at some of the silly things we saw or did.

Hightop may never be the same!

More gorgeous views!

And then there was a dare to climb up on a pile of rocks. And me being BoobOnARock…I did. Hike On!